


Too Close For Comfort

by adaintywomanofmystery



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Magic, Demonic Possession, Demons, Getting Together, I'm only good at angst, M/M, Mage!Andrew, Not Fluff, Warlock!Neil, but i tried
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:01:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28184343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adaintywomanofmystery/pseuds/adaintywomanofmystery
Summary: After a magic ritual to suppress a demon goes wrong, Neil suddenly finds himself not as alone as he hoped to be in his own body - or in the driver’s seat. Fortunately for Neil, he has a talent for pissing everyone off and possession can go both ways if you’re annoying enough. Now the only question is, will that be enough to protect everyone he cares about?Written for the AFTG Winter Exchange 2020 for trenchcoat-moth!
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 5
Kudos: 100
Collections: AFTG Exchange Winter 2020





	Too Close For Comfort

**Author's Note:**

  * For [moth_writes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moth_writes/gifts).



> Here is my exchange fic! I got the prompt for magic au, and I couldn't resist this story, which has been bouncing around my head for a while. You also asked for fluff, and I'm not sure if this is exactly what you had in mind, but it's not, not fluff? I really hope you like it either way!
> 
> There are some warnings for dissociation-like descriptions caused by being possessed if that might bother someone.
> 
> I had fun writing this story and I hope you have fun reading it. 
> 
> The title of the fic is from "Disturbia" by Rihanna.

It was supposed to be a routine operation. When the small village of “Middle of Nowhere” contacted the Foxhole Mage’s Guild to report demonic activity, the report looked like every other exorcism request. Neil, as a warlock and resident demon expert, was an obvious choice, and wherever he went, Andrew went too.

When they arrived they scoped out the area, talked with locals, and verified accounts like usual. It appeared to be a mid-level demon at most. Surprising for such a small village, but not unheard of. They’ve certainly handled worse.

Andrew and Neil found an empty cave just outside of town to begin setting up, isolated to prevent collateral damage, but still close enough to the affected area to be able to summon the demon.

They work quickly, moving around each other with practiced familiarity to sketch chalk lines on the rough cave floor. Neil’s focus is on the binding words around the edge, written in demonic script, while Andrew sketches out the complex lines that cross through the centre to channel the flow of power throughout the array.

At one point Neil grins at Andrew as they neatly sidestep each other without colliding. Andrew rolls his eyes when he catches Neil’s smile, but his eyebrow twitches, so Neil knows he isn’t immune to his charm.

They’ve been dancing around each other for a while now. Neil doesn’t think he’s reading Andrew wrong, but he doesn’t want to jeopardize their partnership. Not many people are willing to work with or even at times associate with warlocks, but the mages of the foxhole have never cared.

They double-check each other’s work, carefully stepping around the lines before Neil gets out his spellbook to find the right chant to summon the demon.

His voice takes on an other-worldly quality as his magic activates. There’s a rushing sound as a strong wind suddenly blows through the cave, accompanied by a horrible shriek as the demon is pulled into the trap. It materializes with a flash of light, more smoke than substance. Neil meets Andrew’s eyes and they exchange a sharp nod before Neil begins the section that will send this demon to the depths of hell, where it will take centuries for it to claw its way anywhere near the surface. 

The smoke continues to shriek and writhe, the candles placed at each convergence point of the chalk lines flickering ominously. Neil is about to speak the binding word when one of the candles is knocked over somehow, going out and spilling wax onto the array. 

The pressure in the cave drops dramatically before a blast pushes him and Andrew off their feet into opposite walls. He has a second to think _oh shit_ before he passes out.

* * *

When Neil comes back to awareness, the first thing he notices is the strange feeling of being disconnected. It’s weird, mostly. Everything feels unfamiliar. He’s mostly aware of things going on around him. He can see, hear, smell, and feel, but it's like he has no control over it. 

His head turns without his permission, and he gets a weird kind of motion sickness, like watching someone else play a first-person shooter game. Neil catches a glimpse of their array, now just chalk on a cave floor, before his line of sight is pulled away to look to his left at Andrew, who’s picking himself up off the ground.

Neil wants to walk over immediately and see if he’s alright, but his body won’t do what he wants it to, staying in place while Andrew approaches Neil. 

“Are you alright?” Andrew asks in a low voice.

“Yeah, I didn’t hit the ground too hard,” Neil’s voice says, which is weird because what Neil tried to say was _I’m fine_. Andrew tilts his head but otherwise gives no response.

“Did you speak the binding word before the array was damaged?” is Andrew’s next question.

“Yes,” his voice says, at the same time as Neil tries to shout “No!" 

Despite that, it’s not until he hears a voice that is definitely not his muttering in his head that he realizes what’s going on. With a great force of will, Neil lets himself have one moment to panic before he wrangles all of his useless emotions into a nice neat ball and shoves it deep into his subconscious to deal with hopefully never, but at the very least not right now. He needs time to think. They deal with demon possession all the time, just from the other side.

Unfortunately, he gets exactly that one moment to think on his own before the voice turns it’s attention to him.

“What the hell are you doing here?” The demon possessing his body asks him as if he’s a bug someone found on their bedroom wall and not the primary custody holder of this body, which appears to have been forced into an unfortunate roommate situation.

Neil considers replying with some sarcastic comment but decides a better fuck you would be to focus on dispelling the demon. He reaches for his magic on instinct, but his connection is blocked just shy of reaching the core of his power. 

“I don’t think so,” the demon thinks and cuts him off from everything. He gets lost in the dark. Again. This day is just going so well.

* * *

Neil regains awareness all at once, unlike the first time. He forces himself to acclimate quickly, unsure of how long he’ll have to fight back. The demon hasn’t noticed him yet, too busy focused on its surroundings.

Looking around, Neil sees movement out of the corner of his eye. He strains his head for a moment before the demon unknowingly obliges and Andrew comes into view. He looks fine, though his expression is stormier than usual.

“How can you even tell?” The demon asks, voice echoing inside Neil’s head and making him flinch. Or he would have if he’d had a body to do so. Apparently, he wasn’t as unnoticed as he thought he was.

“What?” Neil replies, caught off guard at the nature of the question.

“I asked how you could tell. As far as I’m seeing, his face hasn't changed at all since I met him.”

Neil gets the feeling of the demon giving a weird almost-smile at the thought and narrows his eyes.

“There’s no way he’s going to believe you’re me,” Neil says instead, hoping to shift the conversation to see if he can get any useful information. 

The demon merely snorts. “I took a look through some of your memories. You two spend an awful lot of time together acting like you don’t want to be. As far as I can tell all I need to do is act like a brat and say I’m fine all the time and no one will suspect a thing.”

Neil gives his best scowl before sinking into the background to try and think of a way out of this. Surely _someone_ will notice, right?

* * *

No one notices.

Neil watches with increasing frustration as they get back to their base of operations, the Foxhole, and the demon just strolls right on in, hesitating only very briefly on the threshold before it simply pushes past the wards. After this fiasco is over, Neil is going to put some serious work into their security systems. 

He gets a front-row seat as the demon charms its way past all of his friends, giving Neil’s usual “I’m fine,” assurances. The worst part isn’t even that his friends don’t realize it’s not him, it’s that he has to admit they are _right_. Suddenly his “I’m fine” is really annoying and predictable and he’s never going to be able to say it again without thinking of this moment.

The biggest problem Neil is facing, if he were to stop being dramatic for a moment, is that he doesn’t actually know what the demon’s plan is. He tries to do some investigating into the mind of the demon, but while two can play at that game, the demon has the upper hand by being in the driver's seat and suppresses him again for trying that.

Neil does notice that Renee is giving him a funny look as it happens. He wonders what dumb concentration face the demon is making with his features before he disappears.

* * *

When he comes back to his senses for the third time, he notices that not much time has passed, maybe an hour. It’s fairly easy to deduce that repressing Neil is a high-cost effort for such disappointing results. Satisfied with that, Neil cracks incorporeal knuckles and gets to work planning.

The demon is now sitting at the kitchen table in the Foxhole, listening while Allison talks to him and Renee is cooking something to their left. The others are nowhere to be seen. He knows they’re probably safe, but it’s frustrating to be trapped here while the demon does a not-terrible job of impersonating him. To be fair, it’s not hard since he usually lets everyone else do most of the talking. To be less fair, he's had a pretty bad day so far and he would appreciate someone figuring it out.

Neil is counting on the demon acting like other demons do, and not having much of a plan other than cause problems on purpose, given that this situation wasn’t exactly something that could have been predicted in advance. The demon’s biggest miscalculation so far is definitely in thinking that Neil is going to let this happen quietly or will be easily subdued.

All he has to do is find some way to alert his friends without letting the demon know, and do everything in his power to piss the demon off. Fortunately for Neil, he counts being incredibly irritating among his many skills.

There is the possibility the demon could lash out now, but it’s already gone to the trouble of trying to integrate with his teammates, so it’s unlikely to want to break cover unless absolutely necessary. It would make sense, as this demon is obviously not strong enough to take on everyone at the guild, and will probably make a plan to separate everyone to hunt them down one by one.

Well, let’s see the demon try to even think with Neil around.

He immediately launches into a rambling monologue, trying to distract the demon enough it slips up. It probably won’t try the banishing trick again unless it thinks it can concentrate, and if it can, then Neil hasn’t been doing his job. 

“Did you know, demons only live for a couple hundred years before they are replaced with exact replicas?” Neil says innocently, testing the waters.

He feels it when the demon focuses his attention on him instead.

“What are you talking about? That doesn’t even make sense… everyone knows that demons are immortal… Oh, I get it. Stop trying to distract me.”

Neil feels a little flutter at his success. This demon won’t be that hard to rile up after all. He continues his impromptu speech of completely incorrect facts about demons. Despite having known the demon for such a short time, it was quite obvious it wouldn’t be able to stand listening to Neil be wrong about something so personal for very long.

He’s rewarded when he says some very unflattering things about demon physiology that makes the demon snap at him and miss a question from Allison.

“Neil, are you alright? You seem a bit… distracted?” Renee asks, pausing her cooking and walking over. The demon hisses internally at Neil for the mistake he caused, before brushing them off. 

“Just tired from the long day of travel. Exorcisms always take so much energy. I think I’m going to head to my room and rest for a while.”

Allison and Renee both seemed pacified by this response. The demon nods to them and leaves hastily, apparently eager to get away before it can be drawn into further conversation. Neil tries to direct it to the wrong room, but it seems the demon’s already searched his memories for the layout of the building.

It’s not long after, while the demon is poking through Neil’s things, that there’s a soft knock on the door. When the demon opens the door, it’s Andrew, leaning casually on the door frame. 

“You’re acting strange,” Andrew states, his tone even. He doesn't sound angry, which is good, but he also doesn’t sound suspicious, which is less good.

“Seriously, how can you _tell_?” the demon asks internally, but Neil just ignores it.

“I’m fine,” the demon says out loud, and Neil wishes he could hit his head against the wall. Never. using. that. again.

Andrew narrows his eyes slightly but doesn’t push the issue. He also doesn’t believe Neil’s fine, because he makes the demon sit on the bed and undergo a quick inspection. Unfortunately, the problem isn’t physical, and demons give no obvious tells when they’re possessing someone. It’s the reason they’re such a nuisance. Well, that and their habit of killing people. Can’t forget that one.

Neil can almost feel the gears in the demon’s mind turning as it interacts with Andrew. Neil’s been doing an admirable job keeping his cool throughout the day, but he feels his composure fraying, knowing that Andrew is possibly in danger.

To his relief, the demon has no plans to start causing trouble. It’s also not confident enough in it’s Neil impression apparently, because where Neil would sometimes talk with Andrew for hours, or at least sit with him in companionable silence, the demon claims he’s tired and casually dismisses Andrew. 

Andrew leaves, but not without one last parting glance. It’s incredibly frustrating for Neil, knowing Andrew’s right there but still out of reach. Neil can’t even say anything to him, not to reassure him and especially not about any of the important things. With a sinking feeling, Neil realizes that if he doesn’t figure this out soon he might not get the chance to.

That was apparently the wrong thing to think about because that catches the demon’s attention immediately. 

“Oh, so it’s like that is it?”

“No,” Neil tries, though he knows it won’t work. The demon has access to his memories, and now that he knows what to look for it should be obvious.

“I can tell you it’s not obvious to anyone else. Do you two even have emotions that are not spite or boredom?” Neil can’t tell if the demon’s trying to rile him up or if it really is just that rude, but Neil has never felt the need to explain himself to anyone and that’s not about to start now.

“Seriously though,” the demon says, “you really live like this?” 

“We’re working on it!” Neil huffs. He feels rather indignant about being asked to justify his love life, or lack thereof, to a demon.

“Is that what you call this?” Neil can’t feel the demon sorting through his memories, but he knows it’s happening.

“Get out of there, those are private!”

“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter now because I’m going to kill him.” Neil does his best not to react, but the shock of anger and fear he feels is almost overwhelming. When it fails to get a response out of Neil, the demon sighs. 

With nothing else to do, Neil sits back and watches for the rest of the evening, trying desperately to think of a plan.

* * *

Over the course of the next week, the demon does a passable job pretending to be Neil, despite Neil’s best attempts. It has taken to spending a lot of time away from the Foxhole, preparing for… something. Despite being an expert in demon magic, without knowing the foundation of the plan the demon has, its basically impossible to tell what the demon is planning for. 

Neil does get some satisfaction though. He’s pretty sure by the end of the week that the demon is almost ready to abandon the possession altogether and just kill its host.

So far Neil has spent hours singing the same irritating songs, over and over again, shouting random numbers every time the demon has to count or do math, and generally making a nuisance of himself.

He’s especially proud of when the demon has an outburst right in front of everyone during their weekly board game night. The demon had tried to get out of it, but Neil has long since given up trying to avoid this tradition, so the constant excuses had looked pretty suspicious and the demon eventually caved.

During the game, Neil channels his inner Kevin and tells the demon it’s “doing it wrong” every time the demon makes a move. Neil has spent years watching Kevin criticize and generally be a know-it-all about everything, and he’s glad it’s finally useful.

He’s rewarded when the demon can’t help but shout, “Would you stop that!” out loud by accident. Matt looks up in the middle of laying a card down with a hurt expression on his face. 

“Sorry Neil, but I can’t just let you win. I know you’re having a bad game, but I’m sure your luck will change.” Matt says in his reassuring voice that he uses whenever he’s trying to de-escalate a problem. It feels weird for Neil to have it used on him. That hasn’t happened since he first moved in.

“Whatever,” the demon says to the group, throwing down the cards it was holding, and stalking up the stairs in a fake temper tantrum. Neil feels triumphant for a moment, though that ends quickly when the demon, apparently no longer caring about wasting energy, sends Neil back to the void.

* * *

Neil resurfaces to the demon chanting as it passes a hand back and forth over a jeweled dagger, which Neil watched it retrieve from the cursed items storage earlier in the week. It’s still dark out, and the room is weakly illuminated by five candles standing at the key points of a complicated array, in a style that Neil has never seen before.

“I’m setting a trap,” the demon says in a mockingly cheerful voice when it notices Neil watching what it’s doing. “You’re such a pain in the ass, so I’m going to hurt everyone you love one at a time and make you watch. Starting with your precious Andrew. I’m going to get him to admit his feelings for you then stab him in the heart and steal his soul. It’s very poetic, don’t you think?”

“You lay a hand on him and I’m going to make Hell look like a nice vacation spot,” Neil shouts in his mind. He throws himself at the demon, trying to break through its control, but the demon brushes him off, already focused on the ritual again. 

The hours pass in a blur, Neil trying everything he can to disrupt the demon’s hold on him, but he is just ignored. There’s light coming in through the window by the time the demon is done with its preparations. It steps out of the chalk array on the floor, not even bothering to clean it up or get rid of the evidence. Neil gets a sinking feeling in his stomach. It’s not worried about coming back.

“Time to turn your friends into corpses!” It says to Neil in that same crazed cheerful way as it saunters down the stairs, knife tucked carefully into its sleeve. 

Andrew is alone at the kitchen table when the demon finds him.

“Hey Andrew, can we talk in private? There’s something I need to tell you.” The demon says in a lowered voice. Andrew raises an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything in return. He simply stands and tips his head in a “follow me” gesture.

Andrew leads the demon to one of the workrooms. The demon shuts the door behind it, turning to face Andrew. Neil doesn’t want to watch, but he can’t actually look away. As long as the demon is looking that means Neil is too. He wants to curl up in a ball and pretend that this isn’t happening, but that’s not how he works.

Neil forces himself to relax and try to expand his senses in this strange mindscape, looking for anything he can use. He will not let this happen. 

Back in the physical world, the demon has gotten closer to Andrew, just a step too far into Andrew’s usual comfort zone. Andrew takes a step back and the demon frowns but doesn’t move closer. Not to be discouraged, it puts a friendly smile on Neil’s face, which is also weird because Neil doesn’t _do_ that.

Neil is forced to watch the demon give the blandest confession of love he has ever seen. It’s painful to witness, though that isn’t surprising as he doubts a demon would have any idea what love looks like. 

It all feels so surreal. He can’t help but think that if he was ever going to confess, it definitely wouldn’t be like this. Neil’s actually hoping he’s read Andrew wrong, that they aren’t actually feeling the same things, even if it will hurt later, just as long as he won’t fall into this trap. 

If the demon is expecting Andrew to respond in kind, it’s going to be disappointed. Neil is very aware of how emotionally constipated they both are. A dramatic love confession from either of them is about as likely as the sun refusing to rise.

After a long, uncomfortably drawn-out pause, Andrew simply says, “Okay.” Neil’s heart does a funny little clench, even as he feels a huge rush of relief. It hurts, to be rejected, even if this is the outcome he was hoping for. Adding onto this, when Neil looks at Andrew’s face, he sees… anger? So, definitely not what Neil would have wanted to see under better circumstances. Maybe it’s better this way. He can just blame it all on the demon.

“What do you mean ‘okay’? Don't you have anything else to say about how you feel the same way?” While it talks, the demon hides Neil’s right hand behind his back and slips the dagger out from his sleeve.

Andrew just takes another step back, eyes narrowing. He has to know by now that this isn’t really Neil. The demon keeps pushing his luck, trying to get a better reaction, but it’s been hopeless at reading Andrew’s reactions, doesn’t see the controlled anger—just the same blank face as always.

The demon is preoccupied with Andrew, readying to strike. If Neil is going to do something it has to be now. In that moment, Neil focuses on the hand with the dagger, trying with everything he has to stop this. When he feels his fingers twitch he stops immediately, but the demon doesn’t notice.

“That’s disappointing,” The demon says in Neil’s head after it fails again to get the reaction it wants from Andrew. “That was only a fun little twist, however. I guess we’ll just have to do without. The dagger will steal his soul either way.”

Neil takes a brief moment to think that maybe his mother was right that it was safer to be alone, but he can’t find it in himself to regret coming here. Not when he’s finally gotten to know what belonging felt like. He’d known it was always going to be temporary anyway. 

Neil throws everything he has at the demon with one goal in mind; get control of his right arm. Trying for full control has been impossible, but if he can make one right move, then he can solve this. Just one moment, that will be enough.

The demon raises Neil’s arm lightning-quick, swinging the dagger down towards Andrew, when Neil seizes control of that arm, using the momentum to redirect the swing towards his own heart. The demon is too surprised to react and too slow to stop it from happening.

At the exact same moment, Andrew says the final syllables of a binding spell, activating an array that was apparently etched into the ceiling above Neil and the demon. It freezes Neil’s body in place, the dagger hovering a couple inches from his chest. 

Neil can only watch as Andrew walks over to one of the workbenches, grabbing a spellbook and set of supplies sitting innocently in a box. The demon tries to cast a spell, but it's frozen in place completely and can’t speak.

Andrew acts calm, but Neil can see the tightness in his expression as he starts to etch the same pattern on the floor as the first time they got in this mess. He finishes laying out the candles and lights them, before flawlessly executing the spell. 

Neil has always enjoyed watching Andrew work. His confidence and unshakable focus have always made Neil feel safe. Right now, those feelings are magnified by 100. How can anything really go wrong when they’re in it together? 

As Andrew finishes the spell there’s this strong tugging sensation, like slowly removing a stubborn bandaid, but it’s coming from within.

“You’re far more trouble than this is worth, but I’m going to come back for revenge on all of you,” is the last thing the demon snarls at Neil before it’s banished with a final loud popping noise. 

Both arrays deactivate and Neil drops to the ground, forgetting he’s the one that’s supposed to be supporting his limbs. He barely registers the impact, too focused on the rush of feeling returning to him. 

He twists his head to the side, to see Andrew kneeling beside the outer chalk marks. He looks like he wants to reach out, but it’s important not to cross the boundary line of the array until you’re sure a demon’s gone. Neil doesn’t move for a long moment either, letting the adrenaline work its way through his system.

“Thanks,” he eventually croaks, unused to using vocal cords. It’s going to be a weird couple of days for sure. 

Andrew doesn’t respond, his expression intense as he studies Neil’s face.

“The demon’s gone, but don’t take my word for it. I’d tell you something only you know but it had access to my memories so that won’t help.”

Unbelievably, Andrew snorts before turning back to the spellbook. He looks through the index before flipping to one spot and reading off a short incantation. Nothing happens except that a faint blue outline appears around Neil momentarily, so presumably Neil is demon-free for good.

Once he’s sure it’s safe, Andrew kicks away the knife from beside Neil and helps him stand, supporting him as they walk out of the room. Andrew’s apparently not satisfied until Neil’s settled in his own bed and has agreed to rest. When it looks like Andrew’s about to leave, Neil catches his sleeve, stopping him in his tracks. Andrew sighs and settles down beside the bed, waiting for Neil to say something.

Neil would also like to know what he wants to say. Mostly he just doesn’t want to be alone right now, which is almost a surprise considering he hasn’t truly been alone for an entire week. 

Neil ends up going with, “When did you figure it out?” He really just wants to hear Andrew talk. Wants to make sure they’re good, that nothing the demon did or said has caused any problems between them. There’s a tension in Andrew’s posture, and he looked angry before.

“I figured out something wasn’t right in the cave.”

“What the hell? Why did you wait so long?” Neil’s partly teasing, partly incredulous.

Andrew scowls and looks away. “I had to be sure.” It feels like there’s something left unsaid, but Neil’s too tired to figure it out right now, so he opts for blunt.

“What does that mean?” 

They have a staring contest, but Neil doesn’t back down until Andrew finally says, “I had to make sure I wasn’t going to hurt you.” He clenches his jaw and tightens his fist, still not making eye contact with Neil. He rarely shows anger like this so visibly to Neil, who is taken aback by the force of the emotions.

Neil feels his mouth go dry. He wasn’t expecting that response. Especially not with that tone. For once he tries to think carefully before he speaks again.

“Are you angry that I let myself get possessed by a demon? Or are you mad about what the demon said just now?” Neil asks in a careful tone.

Andrew finally turns his head back to finally make eye contact. He gives Neil a look which basically translates to, _Are you being stupid on purpose or did you hit your head on something?_

“Don’t look at me like that,” Neil says defensively. “I get it if you don’t feel that way about me, but you don’t have to act so aggressively about it. I won’t lie to you and say the demon made it all up, but I won’t make it weird or anything, so you can stop already.” Despite his forcibly casual tone, Neil’s heart is beating out of his chest.

“So we're doing this now, then?” Andrew says. Neil takes a deep breath. 

“I might never get another chance to tell you and I don’t want to waste any more time pretending. I care about you, and either you like me back or you don’t, but that won’t change how I feel.”

“Maybe if you weren’t such a fucking martyr, you wouldn’t have to worry about not having a chance. No one asked you to risk your life like that.”

The pieces fall into place for Neil with a neat click in Neil’s mind. So that’s what Andrew’s angry about. 

“You didn’t have to ask. That was my choice and I’m not sorry about it. I would do it again if it meant protecting you.” In a softer tone, Neil continues with, “I know you have my back, but I need you to know I have yours too.”

“You should have let me handle it,” Andrew says anyway, just to be stubborn. Neil smiles tiredly, knowing he’s won the argument. It’s in the past anyway and he’s far too tired to argue any further.

“So does that mean you don’t hate me?”

“I hate you 100% of the time, actually,” Andrew says with no heat behind the words.

“So does that mean you’ll go out with me?”

“Okay.”

* * *

“How did none of us even notice?” Matt mutters to himself.

It’s the next day, and chaos has descended on the Foxhole as Andrew and Neil tell everyone what has happened. This amounts to Neil telling everyone while Andrew looks vaguely smug about being the only one to have figured it out. Well, except for Renee, who had asked Andrew about Neil’s strange behaviour, and had gotten an “I’m working on it,” in response.

“It’s common for demon possessions to go unnoticed. No one’s first thought when someone is acting strange is to assume they are secretly being possessed,” Renee says kindly.

“How did you even let that happen, you—” Kevin cuts off his lecture at a glare from Andrew, for which Neil is relieved.

“Are you okay now, at least?” Dan asks.

“I’m good now,” Neil confirms. He flinches a second later when Nicky lets out a shriek, pointing at Neil.

“He didn’t say he was fine, he must still be possessed by the demon!” Aaron hits him over the head with a couch pillow and everyone else ignores the outburst.

“It really is me. I just…” Neil trails off, not sure he can put the emotions he’s feeling into words. Thankfully he doesn’t have to, as everyone accepts this and the group moves on.

He has to suffer through a round of hugs, but maybe it’s not so bad. It could have been a lot worse, after all. 

“Just never do that again,” Wymack says gruffly, clapping a hand on his shoulder, and Neil can’t help but agree.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos are greatly appreciated! I don't usually respond, but I cherish each and every nice thing you guys say. Thanks for reading :) Feel free to come yell at me on Tumblr at reneeisbuffjesus!
> 
> A note on world-building:
> 
> I didn’t end up finding a way to fit this in the main story, but Neil being a warlock means his mother is a human and his father is a demon. I wanted to make Neil have some demonic powers, but he couldn’t use them for the whole fic anyway. One of my prompts was a Royalty AU and so in my outline I made Nathan demon royalty, so Neil is technically a half-demon prince. Close enough?


End file.
